Do you ask your friends for recommendations? That might work, especially if you share the same interests but what happens if you like strategy games and your friends like first-person shooters? What if a friend’s recommendation doesn’t cut any mustard with you? Will it put you off that particular style of game for good?
Alternatively, you might play the demo version of a release; perhaps downloading it from the World Wide Web, or installing from a cover CD or DVD from an industry magazine. Again, a good idea but demos sometimes aren’t really representative of the actual game, or may be scaled down versions or time-locked so you don’t receive a proper ‘feel’ for the game. Maybe you’ll trawl through a hundred PC games reviews just like the ones on this site before deciding to try it out, or you might just bite the bullet and pay out a few dollars to buy it from a store or download it from a service such as Steam and find out the hard way!
Whichever way you use to choose your next gaming experience there’ll always be an element of guesswork surrounding whether or not you’ll enjoy it. However, help may now be at hand with the launch of a game discovery engine by fledgling games social network, GamerDNA. The tool analyses your playing habits and comes up with suggestions of games you might like to play based on games you select and the traits which attract you to those game.
From the GamerDNA front page, you have to input the name of a game you like – you can either type in the name into the search bar, or click on one of the scrolling screenshots which details some of the most popular games. Once you have selected a game, a list of game traits appears which you can either click on to select or enter your own, up to a maximum of six traits. Then clicking on ‘DONE’ produces a listing of around six games which the discovery tool thinks you may like. It does however make clear that the listed games are only suggestions. Then it’s up to you whether or not you want to try the game out.
